Why aren't my MATLAB preferences saved on Linux?

I'm using R2022b on Linux. On first boot, I switched my keyboard shortcuts to Windows style and turned on font anti-aliasing. These affects persist between sessions.

Now, however, whatever changes I make to the preferences do not persist. e.g. If I switch the font size to 12, it reverts to 10. If I change the theming, it reverts.

Running `prefsdir` in MATLAB always shows the same directory, `~/.matlab/R2022b`, so I don't think it has trouble finding the directory. The only error that pops up when I launch `matlab` from terminal is related to libcanberra, but that's a sound library.

Any ideas? Am I missing something obvious? I'd really like to have persistant preferences. Thanks.

[Chris]

I had the same problem on Manjaro, submitted a support request but it was summarily closed because Arch isn't a supported operating system. Matlab was putting endless .tmp files in the prefdir, every time I made a change (but only to a subset of preferences, because the subset that persists is saved in a .json file or something...)

If you have a supported OS, please submit a support request. Something was wonky with the installer download too--not sure whether that's related.

[Shervin Sahba]

@Chris got a hack working and put info in the answer section. I'm on an Arch system as well, so hopefully this bug gets resolved.

[Chris]

Nice. Seems like it may get some attention as a bug too, looking at the other post.

Answer 1

[Shervin Sahba]

Found a fix. It looks like some sort of issue with how matlab is utilizing the /tmp directory. I don't fully understand what's happening, but as a hack, you can create an auxiliiary temp directory for MATLAB to use inside your home directory. I put it under the cache directory, like so:

mkdir ~/.cache/matlab-tmp

Then matlab can be launched from command line with the environment variable for the TMPDIR exported as

TMPDIR=~/.cache/matlab-tmp matlab -desktop

Any changes to preferences made while using this surrogate temp directory should actually save and persist on your next session.

I'll probably rely on this temp directory from here on out, as I don't see an issue with using it. To launch matlab with this environment variable more easily, you can write up a shell script or add a desktop file like the following. Here's my ~/.local/share/applications/matlab.desktop, which tells Matlab to rely on the new tmp and purges its contents after you're done.

NOTE: Change <username> below to your username! This is only a placeholder, and leaving it unchanged may damage your system!

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application

Version=R2022b

Name=MATLAB

Comment=Scientific computing software

Icon=/home/<username>/.local/share/applications/matlab_logo.png

Exec=bash -c "export TMPDIR=/home/<username>/.cache/matlab-tmp; matlab -desktop; rm -r $TMPDIR"

Terminal=False

[Matus]

Thank you for posting detailed fix. Had the exact same issue with R2022b on Fedora.

[jihao]

the same bug in Fedora37!

[Ezequiel Juarez Garcia]

Thank you so much @Shervin. This worked for me on Matlab R2022b in Fedora Silverblue 37

[David]

Caution: Make sure you change <username> to a proper folder. If you do not you may delete your entire HOME folder with the 'rm' statement. This happened to me. Having a good backup is always important and saved me.

[Shervin Sahba]

@David. I'm sorry that happened and glad you had a backup. I edited in a note as a warning.

[David]

It was my fault not checking closely enough.

[Monique]

Hello,

I ran into this issue and opened a case with Matlab support who confirmed it is a bug and pointed me to this thread (I run Ubuntu). In case it is useful, it seems like it works for me to simply use the ~/.matlab/R2022b folder instead of the tmp one (without deleting it), meaning to start Matlab as

TMPDIR=~/.matlab/R2022b/ matlab -desktop

(please note that I only ran it like this once to change my preferences, and now am using my "normal" matlab launch again; I haven't noticed issues but probably better to backup the R2022b folder first in case).

[Antonio Javier Barragán Piña]

It worked for me in a Linux Mint with MATLAB 2022b.

The code export TMPDIR=~/.matlab/R2022b/; is just needed when you want to change the settings.

[Rudy Richardson]

Thanks! This worked for me on Linux Mint 21.1 Xfce (based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS) and Matlab R2202b.

[Shervin Sahba]

I made a slight edit to the script, changing rm -r $TMPDIR/* to rm -r $TMPDIR.

This should prevent any gross file deletions if there's a typo or something that causes TMPDIR to fail to declare.

You can also just leave the removal part out entirely unless you notice matlab storing large files.

Answer 2

[Batuhan Baserdem]

This fix is not working for me; coupled with another bug that vcs integration causes matlab to crash; matlab is completely unusable for me; unless I act quick enough to open preferences and disable vcs integration on every launch. Really annoying.

Answer 3

[Xiaowei Lin]

This fix works for me.

I combine this thread with the DPI thread: https://ch.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/406956-does-matlab-support-high-dpi-screens-on-linux succesfully to get a scaled-up version of MATLAB in Ubuntu using a high resolution monitor.

However the checkboxes in the menus, the sliding bar, the opening photo of MATLAB, etc. are still small.